Good Things // June

June has arrived and we have once again found ourselves living in a slower paced world where to-do lists involve things like go to the library and make iced coffee instead of grading papers, attending meetings, and answering countless emails.  I always grow a little anxious when May turns to June, wondering how our transition to a new routine will go, yet always welcome the unstructured days better than I think I will.  Yesterday, the kids napped at the same time for almost three hours.  I ran around the house like a mad woman at first, emptying the dishwasher, folding the laundry, and getting dinner ready, just waiting for them to wake up.  Soon, I found myself pacing around the house, sneaking in and out of Mila's room, watching her sleep and secretly hoping she would wake up.  I finally got smart and poured a big glass of iced tea, pushed my sleeves up over my shoulders, and started a new book on the deck, relishing that rare time to just slow down and enjoy some time to myself.  Soon enough, a bed-headed little boy joined me outside and my me-time turned to conversations of X-Men origin stories and legos.  Mila woke up and we took our snacks to the playground, eating grapes under shade trees and making trains down the curly slide.  Someday, there will be more than enough time for new books in the summertime.  So I pace, I will them to wake up from naps, and I make them giggle on the curly slide, knowing these are the days I'll remember as some of the best.       

Celebrating a good start to our summer with lots of pictures that document all the good things.  Good things like strawberry rhubarb pie on a Sunday afternoon, slow mornings starts all piled up in bed, and popsicles in the bathtub, soaking dirty toes and sun-kissed cheeks.  These are the days... 

171.  Puddle Dancing

    

172.  New Sunday dresses

173.  And high-top aqua blue Chucks, because every girl needs a pair...

174.  Our first pool day of the season. 

175.  Sun tea over ice, and sweaty glasses that leave rings of water on the table

176.  Porch hangs with my boy while the baby sleeps

177.  That hour before Beau gets home from work

178.  When he reads her his favorite stories, memorized by heart.

179.  The sunlight that seeps through our windows right before dinnertime

180.  Bubbles on the deck

181.  Blueberry appetizers and inside toys brought outside.

182.  Dinner al fresco

183.  Starting a new book

184.  Her wild ways and dirty face

185.  Iced coffee, all the mornings.

186.  New shrubs and baby grass

187.  Shaving cream paint in the tub and the giggles it creates

188.  An afternoon at the library and a stack of new books to check out

189.  A wedding album out from storage

190.  Post-nap picnics at the park

191.  A big brother's hand and a reassuring smile.

192.  Sun-kissed cheeks and a boy who wears this season well

Happy June, everyone!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy Birthday to my other half today!  It's always such a fun and fitting way to start our summer by creating ways to make our favorite guy feel special on his birthday.  He's easy to love and there's no denying the fact that our favorite part of the day is when he walks through that door. 

I may have fell in love with the barefoot, backwards cap-wearing, free spirit I met in college eleven years ago, but couldn't love you more than when I see you as a daddy.  You love us well and we'll love you forever. 

We have so many surprises in store for you today and can't wait to celebrate!  

Eight Years

We had plans to head to Minneapolis this weekend to get away for awhile, maybe see a concert, definitely eat lots of good food, and celebrate what would be eight years of being married today, June 2.  But when Friday morning rolled around and we had no reservations, no tickets, and no real desire to pack our bags and drive far away, we decide to celebrate here at home.  To be honest, at first it all felt pretty lame, and reminded me of our very first wedding anniversary, where we demolished the kitchen of our new (to us) house, ate our frozen wedding cake, and had a few Bud Lights on the deck.  And although it had seemed like an all around sorry way to spend our first wedding anniversary, Beau and I talk about that one more than all the others, about how much fun it was to transform that sweet little house together and begin to build the life we dreamed about during all those conversations on our deck.  

When I think about it, it was really quite fitting that our first anniversary in this house was spent much of the same way.  We took the kids to Beau's parents early Saturday morning for a sleepover at Grandma's, leaving the whole day for just the two of us.  We listened to Edward Sharpe, sipped iced coffee, and followed each other around the house, completing unfinished projects together, and taking advantage of loads of uninterrupted conversation in the midst.  We critiqued Mumford's new album while driving to a few greenhouses, stopped for grilled chicken and portobello sandwiches at Cottonwood, and planted fifteen new shrubs in our front beds.  It looks so nice and we savored the opportunity to work on projects together, just as we used to.  We laughed, we reconnected, and we made progress - a perfect trio for our eighth anniversary weekend. 

After our hard work was complete, we got dressed up and celebrated with dinner at Ferraris.  Beau had roasted duck over risotto and I had shrimp and homemade gnocchi in a vodka tomato sauce.  We ate slow, laughed loud, and felt fancy, ordering martinis and flaming bananas for dessert.  We missed the kids, but most of all, missed each other.  Having an entire day and night to live just as we used to, spontaneously, selfishly for each other, doing day to days, going to bed late, and sleeping in later, was just what we needed.  

Over dinner, we talked about that first wedding anniversary, living in the thick of a new house, eating freezy pops in bed in the wee hours of the night, talking about filling those rooms up with babies and watching them grow up.  And now, seven years from then, eight years from walking down that aisle and say I do, we're there, living it all very much how we dreamed it to be.  And where do you go after you realize all of your dreams have come true?  Well, I guess you start dreaming up new ones.  

Happy Anniversary to the man who swept me off my feet and made all my dreams come true.  It's been quite a year building this house with you and making all those decisions, and living with my parents for four months and all, but we made it.  I can't wait to grow old with you, to eat freezy pops in bed when we're eighty and laugh about those anniversaries spent demoing stuff and planting shrubs and drinking gin and tonics on our porch during a rain storm.  I love you bigger and better than I ever dreamed I could and am so very lucky to be your wife. 

Babies // Eight years ago today.  

     

22/52

"a portrait of each of my children, once each week, in 2015"

 

Cruz: A little band-aid sorting on our porch over banana bread and lemonade while sister napped inside.  And he's got a golden hue after just two afternoons at the pool.  June has arrived, and we are so happy about it.  

Mila: The sunlight in our house about 4:00 every afternoon is seriously amazing.  And in her pretty white dress, with her hair all sticky with sunscreen and grape jelly, this little girl always dances with her shadows.